The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 190 Human Subtraction Master - Zeng Shaved Head
There was deathly silence inside and outside the lobby of the Hunan Militia Minister's Office.

No one expected that Zeng Guofan could give such a clean and shameless answer!

If this statement came from the Mongolian prince Senggelinqin or the bandit scholar Jiang Zhongyuan who was used to fighting, it would not be surprising. However, Zeng Guofan was just a Confucian scholar who rose to prominence through hard study, examinations and his superb kung fu!

Although he looked like a villain, he had never been involved in a killing spree.

How can someone say such vicious words?

Is it true that one's appearance reflects his heart? Is he really a born bad guy?

Zeng Guofan narrowed his triangular eyes, looked at the well-dressed officials and gentry leaders in and outside the hall, and said in a stern and somewhat helpless voice: "Ever since Changsha suffered a war, Zuo Jigao of Xiangyin has been calling for rent and interest reductions, and asked the gentry of Xianghu to give the poor people of Xianghu a bite to eat. Even if it is only temporarily!

The scholars who came to me today are all wealthy and well-read. I wonder if any of them have listened to Zuo Jigao's call and reduced the rent and interest for their tenants?"

There was silence below.

Reduce rent and interest?

How can it be?

Rent and interest are both market-driven. When there are many people and little land, and there is no other way out, rent is bound to rise. And rising rents will in turn drive up the interest rates of usury!

Because the rent is high, the landowner takes a larger share of the output, leaving less for the tenants, and the tenants have to pay for seeds, farm tools, taxes, levies, deposits, and various expenses required for survival and reproduction. It is normal to spend more than you earn, and borrowing high-interest loans is the only option when you are unable to make ends meet, no matter how high the interest rate is!
However, lending money to these poor households with insufficient repayment capacity will inevitably incur the risk of bad debts and the trouble of debt collection, so the interest rate must be higher.

Therefore, this rent and interest reduction does not conform to the laws of market operation!

Apart from calling for it loudly, Zuo Zongtang could not come up with any means of enforcement.

After all, Zuo Zongtang, a "commoner from Xiangyin", had to rely on the support of the big families to become a "small lord". In this case, Zuo Zongtang could not force the big families to reduce rent and interest, and even had to help them seek more benefits.

His loud cries are no different from farting.

Hearing that no one spoke, Zeng Guofan smiled bitterly and said, "The chaos in the world today is ultimately caused by too many people and too little land. How can we solve the problem? There are only two ways: reducing the number of people or increasing the land. Increasing the land..." He shook his head and smiled bitterly again, his evil face becoming even more gloomy. "Since there is no more land to increase, the only way is to reduce the number of people!"

Although Zeng Guofan's words may sound harsh, they are indeed true!
What should we do if there are too many people and too little land to support them?
Either we seize territory or we reduce the population.

Grab the territory. Where to grab? Whose? Forty million people! How much do we need to grab?
Since grabbing land is not an option, the only option is to reduce the population.

Zeng Guofan continued in a gloomy tone: "In fact, what the Taipings are doing now is also reducing the number of people. It's just that they are reducing the number of landowners and gentry like us, and giving all the property that our ancestors have worked hard to accumulate to the poor people below."

"Master, do you mean that we should reduce the population of the poor tenants down there?"

Finally someone asked the leader of the Xianghu gentry a question.

The person who asked the question was the "good man Huang" Huang Shijie, whose family helped reduce a lot of the population of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. And the reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could take over Etang Town so easily was largely because this good man opened a porridge factory in Etang Town to do charity work, which ended up attracting "starving ghosts" from the surrounding areas.

When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came, these people forgot the kindness of Mr. Huang and turned around to beat Mr. Huang.

This incident irritated him for several months, and he no longer felt any kinship with the poor people in his hometown of Hunan. However, other gentry landlords who had not yet suffered from the rebellion of the poor and lower-middle peasants were still reluctant to take action against their own tenants. After all, many of those tenants were related to them, and they might need to be buried in the same ancestral tomb after death, and they would have to see their ancestors again in the afterlife.
"Of course not!" Zeng Guofan shook his head and stroked his beard, saying, "Ziying, this is not how I do subtraction. I do it outside Hunan!"

"Outside Hunan?" When Huang Shijie asked this question, he subconsciously glanced at Senggelinqin, Guanwen and Shengbao.
Zeng Guofan nodded and said in a deep voice, "I received a report from the governor's office yesterday that tens of thousands of troops led by the fake Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan have approached the city of Changsha. The Hunan governor's office led the gentry and righteous people in the city to retreat to Yiyang County the day before yesterday."

"In addition, the false angel Luo Yaoguo led more than 20,000 bandits. The day before yesterday, because more than a thousand fishermen in Dongting Lake defected, they successfully broke through the Linzikou of Xiangyin. Now they have entered Dongting Lake and will soon reach Baling, the capital of Yuezhou Prefecture."

"Once Baling is broken, the Taiping rebels will definitely take advantage of Hubei's emptiness to attack Jingzhou and Wuchang! This is a good opportunity for us Xianghu people to go out of Hunan and build great achievements! If we Xianghu people can eat well outside Hunan, we will naturally not have to reduce the number of people in Hunan. Not only will we not reduce the number of people in Hunan, but it will also benefit our hometown. What do you think of Guofan's reduction method?"

"it is good!"

Jiang Zhongyuan clapped his hands and cheered: "Di Zhang's subtraction is great! Di Zhang is doing subtraction outside Hunan and adding inside Hunan!"

He stood up and bowed, "Zhongyuan admires you! Zhongyuan is willing to follow Dizhang out of Xiang to make contributions, to find a way out for the children of Xianghu and to seize opportunities for survival!"

Huang Shijie, a disciple of Zeng, bowed to his teacher and said, "On behalf of millions of people in Xianghu, I would like to thank you for saving my life!"

Guo Songtao also clasped his fists and said loudly: "With Dizhang leading Xianghu, it will surely prosper in the future! Songtao would like to thank Dizhang for his support on behalf of the future generations of Xianghu!"

Luo Zenan's favorite student Li Xubin also came to the Minister's Office of Militia in Changde during this period. He came on behalf of his mentor to discuss cooperation with Zeng Guofan. Luo Zenan was from Xiangxiang, and most of his disciples were also from Xiangxiang, and were Zeng Guofan's fellow townsmen. Zeng Guofan's two younger brothers were also Luo Zenan's students.

Now that Zeng Guofan has come out of retirement, Luo Zenan will of course consider hanging out with Zeng Guofan.

Just considering, whether to follow Zeng Guofan in the end depends on how well Zeng Guofan does the "addition and subtraction".

Now it seems that Zeng Guofan's "addition and subtraction" is indeed better than Zuo Zongtang's!
Zuo Zongtang was still a little weak on the issue of "human subtraction".

There were not many records of massacres when he fought against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history, and he later suppressed the Northwest Rebellion and did not leave behind any notoriety as a "left-hand shaver".

So after listening to Zeng Guofan's words, Li Xubin immediately made a choice for his teacher. He bowed and said, "Master Di, it seems that the leader of Xianghu is none other than Master Di! Xubin, my mentor Luo Shangong, and all of my fellow disciples are willing to help Master Di go out of Xianghu and sweep the world!"

With the support of Jiang Zhongyuan and Luo Zenan, Zeng Guofan was not far from becoming the leader of Xianghu.

Jiang Zhongyuan was the leader of the gentry in Baoqing Prefecture, and Luo Zenan had great influence in the area west of the Xiangjiang River in Changsha Prefecture, with many followers. With the support of Huang Shijie, the leader of the gentry in Yongzhou, Zeng Guofan was already able to suppress Zuo Zongtang.

However, if Zeng Guofan wanted to truly defeat Zuo Zongtang and become the number one leader of the Hunan Army, he had to get the support of the three Manchu and Mongolian leaders: Senggelinqin, Guanwen, and Shengbao.

Without their support, it would not be easy for the Hunan Army to leave Hunan!

"Your Highness, Kezhai, Xiufeng, what do you three think?" Zeng Guofan stroked his beard, squinted his triangular eyes, and looked at Senggelinqin, Shengbao, and Guanwen.

Shengbao and Guanwen didn't say anything, just looked at Senggelinqin.

Senggelinqin smiled, clasped his hands and said, "Disheng, I absolutely trust you, but the "Exhortation to Suppress the Enemies and Revive Confucianism" has been widely circulated, and the current situation in Hetang Town, Xiangxiang, will definitely be mentioned by someone in the court. I wonder how I should answer this?"

(End of this chapter)